ROCHESTER — News that the Market Basket president and CEO Arthur T. Demoulas was ousted on June 23 came with sadness and uncertainty among locals, as loyal customers and employees wonder about future prices and atmosphere of the grocery chain.

Arthur T. Demoulas, and two other top executives of the company, were removed by the Market Basket board of directors.

“We are all frustrated, disgusted, heartbroken,” said Adam Bonovich, the assistant store manager at the Rochester Market Basket.

Bonovich, a 20-year employee of Market Basket, had started working part-time at the company at age 16 and worked his way up. The great atmosphere and growth potential under Arthur T. Demoulas’ leadership is one of the strongest reasons he stayed with the company for two decades, he said.

Arthur T. Demoulas is known for making personal visits to all the Market Basket stores, and “he’s just someone you want to learn from,” said Bonovich.

“He’s soft-spoken, he’s intelligent, he knows your name,” he said.

Bonovich said he knew many company employees who attended the protest against Arthur T. Demoulas’ ouster. The protest took place in Chelsea, Mass., on June 24.

While exiting Somersworth Market Basket last week with a cart of groceries, Linda Tatarczuch, of Durham, said she is worried that prices will go up with Arthur T. Demoulas no longer being the company president.

Tatarczuch said she would have to see how the prices look in the future before determining whether to start shopping at a different grocery store.

“It’s just very sad,” said Jennifer Martin, 54, of Wells, Maine, about Arthur T. Demoulas’ ouster. “He was a good man.”

Martin, who was shopping last week at Market Basket in Portsmouth, said she always comes to Market Basket for groceries, because of the low prices and the general atmosphere. The employees, she said, always seem to know which items are located on which shelves.

Also at the Portsmouth Market Basket, husband and wife Barbara and William Gibbs recalled signing a petition last summer to keep Arthur T. Demoulas president of Market Basket.

The petition, signed by more than 54,000 people, was started a few days before a Market Basket board’s meeting that was scheduled for July 18, 2013. Although the board was expected to vote on whether to fire Demoulas at that time, the meeting, which lasted almost 13 hours, produced no such vote.

“I think he should stay,” said Barbara Gibbs, who said Arthur T. Demoulas’ ouster is “very sad.”

After ousting Arthur T. Demoulas and the two other executives, the board of directors said in a statement that Arthur T. Demoulas “was not re-elected president and will not retain any management responsibilities moving forward.”

“The board believes this new management team will enable Market Basket to maximize its potential and pave the way for continued success in the future,” the board’s statement said.

It stated the company’s vice president Joseph Rockwell and director of operations William Marsden were also were removed at the board’s meeting in Boston.

Marsden said the action to remove him, Rockwell, and Demoulas was “driven by greed” after Demoulas implemented a 4-percent price cut for this year and some board members were concerned that would cut into the profits of the company, whose nine shareholders are family members.

The Demoulas family has feuded over company management for years. Arthur T. Demoulas’ cousin and rival, Arthur S. Demoulas, gained board control last year.

The chain began nearly a century ago in Lowell, Mass. with a store owned by Greek immigrants Arthur and Efrosini Demoulas, whose sons modernized the business and expanded it. The company, based in Tewksbury, Mass., has 71 stores in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and plans to expand to Maine.